UK Wind Farms

More environmentally friendly ways of generating power is one of UK's chief priority in the near future. As much as £100 billion have been allocated on wind farms to be built on surrounding coasts covering the UK.

A number of the UK’s major energy corporations including E.On, Southern Energy, and Scottish Power have shown interest with regard to the plan. Even overseas suppliers such as RWE of Germany, Statoil from Norway, and Vattenfall of Sweden are also said to be trying to cash-in on the deal.

The project will turn into a turning point in the country’s power generation industry as it will make the UK as a country with one of the most biggest wind farms in the planet. That is, if it does go through. 2014 is said to be the time where the wind turbines will be raised.

Though the upcoming windfarm programme is the third for the country, the previous two pales in comparison to this one.

The previously erected windmills currently in operation are positioned 25 meters below the surface and far off coast of more or less 25 kilometers. For the latest wind farm project, windmills will be placed at a depth of 60 meters and 205 km further off coast.

These wind farms are expected to supply about a third of the country’s energy needs by 2014. Coastal surveys found numerous zones adequate enough to keep turbines turning. Among these are the Irish Sea, Isle of Wight, Hornsea, Bristol Channel and the location where the biggest site will be placed is at Dogger Bank.

If the latest project becomes a reality, as much as 32 gigawatts of electricity will be the output and supplied to nearby residential houses.

Furthermore, the UK is said to have the most resources of wind in the world. Estimates say that the UK has enough wind resource to power the country three times.

Depending on each wind farm, power output varies in terms of size. The largest site which is said will be at Dogger Bank will generate 9,000 megawatts of electricity while the smallest is supposed to yield up to 600 megawatts of power.

Even with the optimistic views connected with wind power, there are still lots of obstacles that need to be overcome. For one, the quantity of watts that gets generated is dictated by the speed of the wind and wind blows can halt any time.

The cost of constructing a wind farm also hovers at £3 million while a gas power plant only costs £1 million.

The country has lately made endeavors to harness energy through environmentally friendly means. One of which is laying wave tubes also along the coast which harness power from waves which is pretty much boundless.

Also, allocation of funds is going to be used to build nuclear power plants. Though nuclear power is not a fool-proof environmental answer, it does not have emissions as those of gas or coal power plants but the possibility of nuclear fallout is always there.
When the majority of the country gets its power source from energy efficient wind farms or anything environmentally friendly, a much more cleaner and energy efficient UK will benefit more citizens through cheaper energy cost and creation of jobs.